Blinded
I did not know the light and I thought there was no truth in life. But having become convinced that people could only live by this light, I began to seek its source and I…
Author: Mark J. Chmiel
Biographilia
I have often thought that there has rarely passed a life of which a judicious and faithful narrative would not be useful. For, not only every man has, in the mighty mass of the world,…
Imagine: The Macbeths Coming over for Dinner
Shakespeare presents them as the happiest married couple in all his work. –Harold Bloom, Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human, p. 518
Song of the Night
Norm Finkelstein recommended this song, and now so do I! Now if you feel that you can’t go onBecause all of your hope is goneAnd your life is filled with much confusionUntil happiness is just…
Share the Wealth with Cami Kasmerchak: The Good Grief Project
There is a quote from one of my favorite poets, Buddy Wakefield, that I sometimes mis-remember. My version of his words has to do with creating safe passage through our minds, which, in my opinion,…
Acting on This Could Save Some Energy
But whatever be the motive of insult, it is always best to overlook it, for folly scarcely can deserve resentment, and malice is punished by neglect. –Dr. Samuel Johnson, quoted in Paul Fussell, Samuel…
Wouldn’t It Be Nice?
Society is a system of lures,I’M THROUGH WITH IT –Jack Kerouac, Some of the Dharma
A Source of Life
As a young adult entering the Sisters of Loretto at eighteen, somewhat naively, I spent a lot of genuine effort to read and take seriously the Gospel. What has sustained me over the long haul,…
Memorable Scenes
It has been said of the play “Hamlet” that its best scene is the one in which Horatio first sees the ghost, or the one in which he tells Hamlet of it, or the one…
From East to West
You are what your deep, driving desire is.As your deep, driving desire is, so is your will;As your will is, so is your deed;As your deed is, so is your destiny. —Upanishads, translated by Eknath Easwaran…